I spent my Thanksgiving weekend visiting my Mum and Dad in New York. On Saturday night, one of my buds from high school days of yore was generous enough to let me tag along with him for a preview performance of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's Company. The show is a Broadway revival of the 1970 production.

Hi! So, I've been thinking about you a lot, and there are some things I want to tell you. I'll bet your surprise appearance at the American Music Awards last night was fun. But I heard that you kicked it at Paris Hilton's after-party. This is the second time in, what, a week, that you've rolled with P-Hilt? What exactly are you up to?

They do. And like the rest of the world, I'm starting to believe maybe this whole TomKat and their TomKitten alien baby union isn't the farce I originally assumed it was. Maybe it's all the breathless People.com coverage (there is even a blog). However. Let's talk about the fact that in Katertot's official wedding photo -- the print that's circulated in all the tabloids, and also the one she'll likely look back on years from now so that she can remember the "happiest day of her life" when she married Loony Cruizy, "the most amazing man in the world" -- the former Girl Down the Creek is slumped over worse than an insecure, pre-braced scoliosis patient.

Frequent readers of this literary blog know that we are somewhat, ehem, fixated and irrevocably OBSESSED with the Harry Potter series and its accompanying films. While the books have never failed to disappoint us, we've had lots of issues with the movies -- especially the last one, Goblet of Fire. Don't get us started.

"Simpson is indeed publishing a book, O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here’s How It Happened, which will be released on Nov. 30, the New York Times reported yesterday. Fox will also take advantage of the scandal by broadcasting two one-hour interviews with Simpson during the last week of sweeps, on Nov.

In the spirit of politics and exhaustion, today's Publisher's Lunch newsletter threw another hissy over this brief New York Times piece on Barack Obama's "surprise best seller," entitled The Audacity of Hope.

Says the Times:

"But its rapid rise to the No. 1 spot on the New York Times nonfiction list next Sunday, placing the author, the freshman Democratic senator from Illinois, ahead of heavyweight authors like John Grisham, Bill O’Reilly and even Bob Woodward, is something of a publishing stunner."

AMONG THE BELIEVERSIn the vibrant San Francisco literary scene, you haven’t made it unless you can play six degrees (or less) to David Eggers. HEIDI JULAVITS can do it in just two. She edits the Believerwith author Vendela Vida, who’s married to Eggers, the force behind McSweeney’s and the student writing center 826 Valencia

Quick Fiction, a magazine of tiny stories, releases its tenth issue in style on Thursday, November 9 at the Enormous Room in Cambridge at 7 pm. Dubbing the event "Double-Digit Debacle," the magazine celebrates five strong years in publishing with a release party featuring readings by Quick Fiction authors James Grinwis, Amy L.

A supergroup of writers get thoroughly nostalgic over food in Death By Pad Thai: And Other Unforgettable Meals. DOUGLAS BAUER edited this collection of essays by the likes of Andre Dubus III, Sue Miller, and Amy Bloom. Tonight, hear from Bauer and three other contributors: CLAIRE MESSUD has a sudden jolt of selective-memory when it comes down to telling a story about an incredible French meal, and local foodie/short-story eroticist STEVE ALMOND describes a dish of homemade pad thai made with Maine lobster, which, apparently, tastes amazing.